In this week’s Gospel, we see John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, preparing the way for Jesus’ Messianic mission. He calls all people to repentance and baptizes those who were humble enough to acknowledge their sins. However, he is particularly aggressive toward the group of Pharisees and Sadducees who come to be baptized, but have not truly repented. He calls them out for not producing good fruit as evidence of their repentance.
This is a warning that each of us can take to heart. The Pharisees and Sadducees were the religious leaders of their day. They were ‘faithful’ and ‘practicing’ Jews. But they often made a show of practicing the Law, and they heaped unnecessary religious burdens upon those whom they led. As a result, John denounced their baptism as an outward show rather than true repentance, and he gives proof for his claim by pointing out that their repentance did not make them better religious leaders. John goes further and tells them not to depend on their connection to Abraham as what makes them righteous, but hints that true faith and not lineage is necessary for a relationship with God.
For those of us who are faithful and practicing Catholics, we can fall into a similar trap. We are baptized, we go to mass when we are obliged, and we try to follow the commandments. These are all good things. But if we do not allow our hearts to be engaged by God and His grace, they can become a fruitless checklist. Despite this, we can convince ourselves that we are living out our faith because our checklist is being completed.
Of course, the checklist is not a bad thing. It is imperative to go to mass when obliged and to follow the commandments. But John is preparing the way for Jesus so he is calling us to something greater than just a master/servant relationship with God in which we just follow His rules. Jesus tells His disciples, I no longer call you servants, but friends. Friends do not view friendships as checklists. They view their friendships as something stable, enjoyable, and even exciting. They work for their friendships to continue not out of obligation, but out of desire. Sure there are difficult moments in every relationship in which we may wonder if the pain is really worth it, but we endure it because we value the other person.
This is how God views us. He creates us out of love for the purpose of sharing Himself with us. He gives us the ability to be one with Him. He begs us to be in relationship with Him even to the point of suffering death on a cross. He makes Himself vulnerable by giving us the choice to reject Him in hopes that we choose instead to love Him. He does not view our religious practice as a checklist. Rather, He views it as an essential relationship that will give us the life that we need to be close to Him.
So the warning that John the Baptist gives to the Pharisees and Sadducees is still applicable today. As we continue on our Advent journey, God calls us to not only repent ritually, but to turn to Him in our hearts. He becomes man so that we can become God. But in order to do that, we have to move away from a checklist mentality and embrace the loving relationship that God desires to have with us. It is a long process and often arduous, but we will be assured that we are on the right path when we experience the fruit of our conversion, unlike the Pharisees and Sadducees.
